Scholar Merits - What to get?Follow

Well I did it, I got to 90 over the weekend in my second Aby party ^^ I even capped out my merits (well, stored merits), so now I'm faced with the decision on what I want to merit. It's the first job I've ever had the problem on ^^ I've been reading up on what all the various abilities are, and I think I've decided the direction I'm going to go in, but was curious to get some feedback from other Scholars who've been through this before.

I'll preface this by saying I'm a hume, and play mage jobs (so I don't really have any intentions of playing melee characters unless you count thwacking things as a Red Mage some time in the future!), so melee skills aren't that important to me.

Shared Merits

• HP/MP - Full 12/12 on MP merits (I usually sub RDM so want to push my MP up for a better Convert ratio)
• Stats - Full 8/8 on INT merits (again, mage roles, the INT boost will be most beneficial to me)
• Combat Skills - ? (probably Staff and Evasion, but I suspect I'll leave these until later when I decide how far I want to take Red Mage; i.e., do I need Sword/Dagger merits?)
• Magic Skills - Full 8/8 on Enfeebling and Elemental (not sure where to put the last 8 points yet)
• Others - Full 5/5 on Spell Interruption (again, not sure about the other 5)

Group 1 Merits

• Grimore Recast - Not going to bother; shaving 10 seconds off switching arts doesn't seem worth it, and that's assuming it's fully merited
• Modus Veritas Duration - With the nerfs this skill received, again, I don't believe this is worth it unless they drop the recast
• Helix Magic Accuracy/Attack - Full 5/5 merits
• Max Sublimation - Full 5/5 merits

(With the first two skills basically ruled out, the only choice I have is to fully merit the last two anyway).

Group 2 Merits

• Altruism - Don't _think_ I need additional white magic accuracy? Open to suggestions here
• Focalization - 4/5 merits for 5/5 if I don't use Enlightenment
• Tranquility - Redundant with introduction of Animus Minuo?
• Equanimity - Redundant with introduction of Animus Minuo?
• Enlightenment - Maybe useful... I'm thinking it's primarily going to be used to cast a -na spell when you're in Addendum: Black mode, but with our stratagems recharging every 48 seconds at level 90, it's probably quicker (and better MP wise) to switch arts, use Addendum: White, cast your spells, then switch back to Dark Arts
• Stormsurge - Full 5/5 merits

Does that sounds like a reasonable path to take for merits? Basically it's focused on maximizing magic damage and landing nukes/enfeebles (+INT, enhanced Enfeebling/Elemental magic, Focalization/Stormsurge, etc, etc), since on the white magic side I believe I'm basically covered (it's primarily player targeted spells such as Cures and Status Removal which wouldn't benefit majorly from the merits).

There's still a few gaps in my shared merits since I don't really know where the best benefit is going to be, but again, I'd love to hear from some career Scholars on how they've gone about their merits.

Hardly, there's not enough of us for a full blown forum debate ^^



Abyssea is always a special case, and whilst I'm only getting my feet wet there, I'm not necessarily aiming my merits towards it, since I've got a ton of storyline content I haven't done yet. I'm considering cases of enfeebles specifically here (or helices I suppose), I would have thought that the additional accuracy provided by Focalization would be useful in landing enfeebles on HNMs outside of Abyssea. Or does the higher level cap negate that these days?



That's a good point I suppose, I keep forgetting Erase and Reraise (and Raise II) are tied to Addendum White as well. But can you use other stratagems with the spells as well? Just thinking that if you could 'Manifestation' a -na or Erase spell (Accession normally I know, but you're in Dark Arts, so Manifestation is your AoE stratagem) then this would become much more favourable.



If you have it fully merited, wouldn't it be on a 5 minute recast, not a 10 minute one? Or have I read the description on it wrong?

FFXIclopedia must be out of date then, this is the current text in the article on Enlightenment:



Good info on Focalization though. If resists aren't an issue as such now with additional merits and gear, then that really leaves Enlightenment as the only other viable Tier 2 merit I suppose, regardless of the recast timer.

I'm hoping so, because with a 5 minute recast it actually becomes practical to merit it fully ^^

Edit:
Looking back over my combat skills, I would imagine that the split I'd probably go for factoring in the fact I may play around with RDM/NIN at some point in the future would be:
Evasion: 4/4
Parrying: 4/4
Sword: 8/8
Dagger: 8/8

Evasion and parrying I assume would also be useful as a Scholar (in case a mob does decide to thwack us; given we carry staves or dual wield as RDM/NIN, Shield skill isn't worth much, and Guard is somewhat unreliable). Swords and Daggers would both be useful as a RDM or NIN; is there any particular reason to put merits into staves for a Scholar? Is there any benefit to it?

Edited, Aug 22nd 2011 7:51am by Drusenija

If I do actually put some work into NIN, it'll be purely as a subjob for RDM, I don't plan to take the job to endgame. I've continually put it off because I gave a friend my Utsusemi: Ichi scroll when I left in 2005, so my NIN doesn't have Utsusemi right now; I refuse to pay the AH price for it and I haven't got around to getting it on my mule yet, so I haven't leveled NIN above 10 right now (and don't plan to go any higher without Utsusemi).

Essentially what you're telling me though is combat skill merits are basically useless for Scholar, and any points I put into them should be based on what I'm doing with other jobs, yes? ^^

If it were a throwing based skill, you could "throw the book" at someone... *queue rimshot* Would almost have to be anyway since we're not exactly a front line job ^^ Blunt damage anyone? (Unless it's a paper cut...)

Did you happen to check the Enlightenment recast time Exodus?

Don't do this unless the mob is pretty low level. You don't get the skill boost to Elemental Magic in Light Arts, so you're nuking with a D skill rating. Tossing a Sleep II or a Break is okay, because Enfeebling is boosted in both arts, using a -na or Erase or a a RRaise on Dark Arts is ok, because they don't rely on skill (well, except cursna). But if you want to nuke and are on Light Arts, change to Dark -> Enlightment -> toss nuke -> Light Arts again. Worst case, you were on Addendum White and will need a stratagem to reapply it. Even then, hey, you saved a charge by using Enlightment.

I think he's referring to using Enlightenment with it. Enlightenment not only allows access to every spell from the opposing addendum, but also 'optimises' your skill ratings as if you were in both arts simultaneously. Of course, the downside is that if casting in the wrong arts you're still paying the MP penalty and suffering longer casts and recast times.

Its a useful skill, and considering that the merit strategems all require TWO points to use I honestly can't find a good reason to take them. Enlightenment and Stormsurge all the way for me!

Looks like I was wrong. Enlightenment does indeed raise both Light Arts and Dark Arts related skills to B+.

Oh, you get your skill boosted to B+ with Enlightment? I stand corrected, then. My 5/5 Enlightment merits look even better now ;)